Words for Wednesday

5.2.12- 

  Yes, I'm back for another post of the day.  I have just been sitting here at my computer crying with tears of JoY & want to tell you about it.  

I have had the privilege to serve as the PTSO Pres. for 2 years at Macey's middle school. It's been a great learning experience for me. Many of you might know that I graduated in Secondary Education & even taught for a year so I have a passion for education & teaching.  Thank goodness I had some incredible ladies to help me the past 2 years because without them we couldn't have accomplished all the good that we did. Some things were big things & others small but through out the whole time our goal was 

- To be an Active, Positive Influence- 

at the Middle School & I'm so proud to say that we accomplished just that! 

There are so many things that I'm proud of that we did but I think the one that means the most is our 

Positive Post-it campaign.  This idea came to me & I introduced it to our board last year.  I wanted for us, as a PTSO, to really reach out to the students & let them know that there are people cheering for them & wanting to see them succeed.  

-Life is GOOD!  Love that one & yes, a Smile is contagious. Hope there are lots of smiles at the Middle School today- 

With my first teaching experience, years ago, I saw first hand that some students have such a tough life & sometimes they might not hear an encouraging or positive thing said to them before they arrive at school let alone what they may encounter once they arrive at school.  They need all the positive reinforcement & kind words or just a smile to help them get through the day.  I had students coming into my class that were hung over or I could smell had been smoking or even drugs sometimes & these were 14-15 year old kids.  It broke my heart.  I tried as hard as I could to be an example to them & to flood them with as many kind words that I could in the hour I had them each day.  Trust me they needed it so desperately.  I know that those were extreme circumstances & that not all students are dealing with those kind of things.  But just being a teenager & dealing with friends, school & homework make life seem so hard sometimes. They are all dealing with something each & every day no matter what it is.   

So my idea for positive post-its came from that experience.  I wanted us to try & reach those students, even if it was just one,  who needed to hear something nice said to them or a positive message to keep them going for the day.  We would put up around 50 post-its after each meeting on random lockers & just hoped that we picked a locker of a student that would appreciate it or that simply just needed it that day.  It was funny how as we would be putting post-its out students would walk up to us & say, "Hey, I want one of those on my locker." or "I haven't gotten one yet, my locker is 317 could you put one on there"  so we would quickly write them down & go put one on their locker. 

Yesterday at our last meeting we wanted our message to be heard loud & clear so we decided to PLaSTeR the entire school with Positive Post-its. {825 lockers worth!} That's a lot of happy thoughts being put out there!  So that each & every student received an uplifting positive message to start the day.  It looked so bright & colorful as we left the school yesterday. We even had some extra so me plastered the Teachers Lounge as well... teachers need a uplifting word too ;) 

-It looked awesome!- 

Funny how such a simple thing has come to mean so much to me & I truly believe it can make a difference!  

I've absolutely loved being a part of this each month & I'm going to miss not having the opportunity to do it next year.  You can read more about Positive Post-its & a day that my heart soared at the Middle School, {Here}  

Share something positive today!

{M}